Chapter 288 (1/2)

“Uncle, uncle, have you been sleeping in the meantime?”

“Yes. I slept for nearly 500 years, Aegle.”

The three sisters of Hesperides gladly welcomed their uncle whom they met after a long time. Park Muyeol and I entered the Temple of Clouds under the guidance of these three sisters.

“You are originally a sleepyhead, Uncle?”

“You were also a sleepyhead when you were young, Erytheia. It is the same for you, Arethusa. Both of you slept the most.”

“I am no longer such a lazy person. Erytheia is lazy.”

“Arethusa is too! Bah—!”

The three sisters chattered as if they were enjoying the reunion with Prometheus. They seemed to have forgotten about Hercules. However, Park Muyeol was still anxious. “...Hey, is it really okay?”

“Ah, of course. Their uncle is present. What can the nieces do?”

“Sigh. It feels like I’m walking on thin ice.”

Park Muyeol let out a sigh and Hercules couldn’t hide his anxiety through the indirect messages. The funny thing was that every time Hercules sent a message, Arethusa glared at Park Muyeol. This kept happening and Park Muyeol just shrugged, whistled, and pretended not to know anything. I couldn’t help grinning at the pitiful sight. It was the first time I had seen him acting like this.

“Let’s prepare a welcome dinner. Kids—!”

A welcome party began with this sudden cry. Aegle started to create clouds that resembled Solar to give as a gift to Prometheus, while Erytheia ordered the monster to procure fruits and food. Arethusa started cooking with the procured ingredients. She created a fire, boiled water, added plenty of delicious ingredients, and cooked meat. Arethusa’s cooking was of high quality. She had been in charge of cooking for the three sisters for many years so it was natural to be skilled.

“Phew, it is delicious.”

“I’m full.”

Park Muyeol and I placed our hands on our protruding stomachs and stroked. It had been a long time since I had eaten other people’s food. It was because there was no one better at cooking than me in this world. It might sound like bragging, but it was true.

“I didn’t know you could cook like this, Arethusa.” Prometheus, in the form of Solar, clutched his stomach and expressed his satisfaction.

“You're overpraising me. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Arethusa smiled with a satisfied expression.

Right then, Aegle, who was kneading the cloud, brought over a piece of cloud resembling Solar. The sculpture was very small and detailed. It was unexpected that those big hands would be so delicate. “Uncle! I will give this to Uncle!”

“Eh? Uh, yes. Thank you. But the shape I’m in now…”

[※ Emergency Notice ※There will be inspection soon.]

“Eh?”

“What?”

Park Muyeol and I had wide eyes at the same time.

[Please shut down your access in 5 minutes.]

[Once again, Union will repeat it...]

[An emergency inspection will be carried out soon.]

[All users...]

An emergency notice popped up out of nowhere. It was a message from Union to the users. They had never done this before so I was very flustered. It seemed that asking about Atlas’ whereabouts would have to be delayed for a bit.

* * *

At Union’s headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul...

“The emergency inspection notice has been issued to all users.”

“The server will shut down in five minutes.”

“There are a total of 1,245,680 users currently connected.”

“The number of users logging off is increasing.”

“If it continues this way, all the users would log out stably.”

The strategic planning office and other monitoring personnel moved in a busy manner. They weren’t flustered by the sudden shutdown order and ran in a busy manner to respond to Lee Seokjun’s order.

“......”

“......”

Lee Seokjun and Yoo Minseok watched the progress in the strategic planning room. There was only silence in the room. Lee Seokjun was the first one to open his mouth, “...Honestly, I still can’t believe it.”

Worry filled Lee Seokjun’s face. Yoo Minseok had told him everything, except for the matter of Lee Geonmyeong’s involvement in all this. He said that before Dr Kang Jaeseong collapsed, he left coordinates to prevent a fatal bug.

“Please trust me. I couldn’t believe it, but after experiencing today’s sudden situation, I think that Dr Kang’s words might be true.”